Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Don't be mad --- I think this cupcake stamp set is discontinued. Recently I did a major purge of my craft room and I came across a bunch of PaperTrey Ink stamp sets that I had never used. I HAD to have them at one time so I thought before I sell them I might as well use them. And so I made this card. Any card that allows me to use lots of pretty ink colors is ok in my book! And a cherry on top with some Glossy Accents? Yep!

Sunday, September 20, 2015

I had fun making several cards with this Simon Says Stamp Cups & Succulents stamp set. I love that you can mix and match the plants with the vessels.

I used the My Favorite Things Vertical Frame die on another card and had this frame leftover. (Sorry, this die is discontinued - but any rectangle die will work). I thought it would make a perfect shaker card. I stamped the images and colored them with Copics. I love the dies that come with this set because it makes it so easy to cut out these delicate images. I used Simon Says Stamp beads and Martha Stewart sequins for the shaker. Their smaller scale made them perfect for this smaller card.

Saturday, September 19, 2015

If you took the last Online Card Classes Background Check class you learned a tip from Jennifer McGuire on the wrap-up day on how to create a background and space it out just right. That tip was worth the price of admission so I wanted to play!

For this card I used a lot of color to create a cheerful background.

I wanted to create a more subtle background so I did a tone on tone look with khaki ink on desert storm cardstock. I thinks it almost has Pennsylvania Dutch feeling.

Friday, September 18, 2015

When Simon Says Stamp and Hero Arts collaborate for STAMPtember wonderful things happen.. like this stamp and die set (link here).

I couldn't wait to play with these so I made four cards! The first one uses a quick and easy watercolor background as a backdrop for the die cut and stamping. I die cut "prayers" three times and stacked them to add a bit of dimension. I added Glossy Accents to it for a little shine. And a little Wink of Stella pen on the hearts...

This card is to send as a sympathy card for a friend of mine who lost their precious furbaby. It was fun to mix this new stamp set with an older Simon Says Stamp pet sympathy set. The My Favorite Things I Knead You set had the perfect kitty to add to the card. No coloring required - I just die cut it and stamped the image and let the cardstock be the coloring. That gave me the subtle look I wanted. I die cut the "prayers" word three times and stacked them.

For this card I mixed a little Mermaid Lagoon Distress Ink reinker with translucent embossing paste and applied it to the background with a Simon Says Stamp large stencil. For the sentiment I stamped it on black cardstock with Versamark and then used white embossing powder. I wanted the card to be simple. I thought it looked a little plain so I stamped the My Favorite Things Diagonal Stripes Background on white cardstock in black ink.

One final, simple card. I wanted to stamp the sentiments in pretty Simon Says Stamp inks. I added a little Glossy Accents to the hearts and rounded the corners. Done!

Sunday, September 13, 2015

But I started thinking.. what would Kathy Racoosin do? She would use it in a different way than it was intended! So I used it to make a card for Susan Wymer's granddaughter.

I turned the stamp sideways to create a background (I think this would work great for a sea/ocean scape as well). I stamped the strings with black ink and then randomly colored the areas with Copics. I wanted this to have a soft, baby girl feeling. When I was done it wasn't as soft as I wanted it to be. So... I added some vellum on top and sewed it to the background and it was the perfect fix.

To create the body I stamped it on a scrap piece of pink polka dot paper. To add a little detail to the wing I added some white dots (also a Kathy Racoosin trick). A little foam tape and a googly eye attached with multi matte medium and the card front was mostly done. Once it was attached to the white card base I thought it needed a little definition so I added the black line outline.

Thursday, September 10, 2015

When I saw the triple stripe stamp on one of the new STAMPtember stamp sets I knew I wanted to try a stamping technique that I saw Laura Bassen do somewhere along the way.

I'll be honest, this stripe background took a bit to create but it was fun to do! To create it you stamp the stripes in one color, then the next one overlaps with the outside stripe of the new color. Make sense? As you can see from the uneven white areas it's not perfect. But does it have to be? I love the look.